Store targets collecting frenzy by puncturing packaging

Published 4:00 am, Saturday, June 13, 1998

IT ISN'T every day that a retailer purposely defaces its own merchandise, but that's what's happening in a controversial test by Target discount stores.

Target is having employees at a few of its outlets in the Southwest punch holes in the bubble-and-cardboard packaging of diecast race-car replicas issued to commemorate NASCAR's 50th anniversary.

A Target corporate spokeswoman said the experimental program was started to try to discourage overzealous collectors from emptying shelves of the collectible toys, particularly Racing Champions and Hot Wheels.

"The bottom line is that we are trying to make the merchandise accessible to everyone," Carolyn Brookter said.

As is often the case with packaged collectibles, the NASCAR replicas are worth more if they're still in their boxes, in pristine condition.

"I think it's an absolutely horrible thing to do," said one collector, Cheryl Celso of Albuquerque. "The big thing that's causing all this ruckus is that Racing Champions has produced a line with the 50th anniversary logo. After this year, they'll never have a line with that logo again."

"This is a huge concern to collectors," said Sharron Korbeck, editor of Krause Publications' Toy Shop Magazine, "because a toy - mint in its package - is worth a lot."

Some of the NASCAR replicas that initially sold for less than $10 are bringing $30 and up on the secondary market.

In the race to acquire these limited-edition cars, collectors have been paying children finder's fees to locate them. Some of the kids have been lining up before stores open, to get first crack at fully-stocked shelves. Fistfights reportedly have broken out at some places, with kids getting knocked down in scuffles between adults.

It's the same sort of mania that has been driving the Beanie Babies market, and the Kenner action-figures market before that.

Over the last several years, many stores nationwide have had to institute strict in-house policies regarding the more popular Kenner sports issues.

Target initiated a new collectibles policy with its employees last year. It's now forbidden for them to search stockrooms to find individual collectibles for customers, and they can't set aside high-demand toys for customers or themselves. Target also limits the number of some toys one customer can buy.

"It's pretty obvious when people come in and want to buy a case of the NASCAR race cars that they aren't giving them to their nephews and nieces," Brookter said.

Remembering the PCL&lt;

Forty years after its death, the appeal of the Pacific Coast League remains strong.

Several of the men who played for the San Francisco Seals and Oakland Oaks in what was once among baseball's keenest rivalries will be on hand for a pregame ceremony June 25 at Candlestick before the Giants host the A's in interleague play. They'll also appear at a special stadium reception at 10 a.m. that day.

Ex-Seals outfielder Dino Restelli will throw out the first pitch at the final game of a four-game Bay Bridge Series.

To help commemorate the rivalry and the long baseball tradition in Oakland and San Francisco, Bay Area labor unions and State Sen. John Burton have established a new

"Senators" trophy that will go the winner of the now-annual interleague series.

Auction report&lt;

A premier library put together by Joseph S.F. Murdoch, the noted golf bibliographer and co-founder of the Golf Collectors' Society, will be auctioned Tuesday and Wednesday beginning at 10 a.m. each day at Pacific Book Auction Galleries, 133 Kearny St., fourth floor. More than 1,200 lots of books, going back to the 1700s and 1800s, will be on sale.

New stuff&lt;

Sports, Accessories and Memorabilia of Menlo Park bobs on. The bobbing-head dollmaker has issued four of six ceramic baseball collectibles it will produce this summer: Alex Rodriguez, Chipper Jones, Mark McGwire and Larry Walker. SAM reportedly is considering whether to make a Mike Piazza doll, and, if so, which uniform to depict him in - Dodgers, Marlins or Mets. The bobbing heads retail for a suggested $48.95.&lt;